It's my observation that women find it easier than men to tune into their natural rhythms. The menstrual cycle helps cultivate that ability. We men experience less dramatic physical shifts, and that seems to give us license to override messages from our bodies for the sake of ambition, laziness, or convenience. Having acknowledged that, I must say that I know men who are highly sensitive and responsive to somatic cues, and women who aren't. Whatever gender you are, I believe that in the coming weeks it's crucial for you to be acutely aware of what's going on inside your beloved flesh-and-blood vehicle. This is one time when you need to be intimately aligned with its needs.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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In his book Cosmos and Psyche, Richard Tarnas says the planets don't emit invisible forces that shape our destinies as if we were puppets. Rather, they are symbols of the unfolding evolutionary pattern. Just as clocks tell time but don't create it, the heavenly bodies show us the big picture but don't cause it.

Quoting Greek philosopher Plotinus, Tarnas writes, "The stars are like letters that inscribe themselves at every moment in the sky. Everything in the world is full of signs. All events are coordinated. All things depend on each other. Everything breathes together."

So it's not just the distant globes whose movements and relationships serve as divinatory clues. If you're sufficiently attuned to the gestalt of creation and pay close enough attention to its unfolding details, you can read the current mood of the universe in the arrangement of red onions in the grocery store bin or the fluttering of sunlight and shadow on the mimosa tree or the scatter of soap suds in your sink after you've finished washing the dishes.

Can you do it? Discern the signature of creation at this or any other perfect moment? Peer into the secret heart of the collective unconscious? Guess what the Goddess is thinking? Hint: You will have to switch on a dormant capacity, transforming your imagination from a mere fantasy-generator into an organ of perception.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

One of the greatest kings of the ancient Persian Sassanid Empire was Shapur II (309-379). Shortly after his father died, he was made king while still in his mother's womb. Since he could not yet wear his crown, officials set it upon his mother's pregnant belly. He ruled from then until the day he died, 70 years later. I'm naming him your patron saint for the second half of 2011, Taurus. My sense is that the seed of some great accomplishment is already germinating within you. It may take a while to be fully born, but I suggest we consecrate its bright future now.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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"When you die," says the Koran, "God will call upon you to account for all the permitted pleasures you did not enjoy while on earth." The Talmud offers a similar idea: "A person will be called upon to account, on Judgment Day, for all the permitted pleasures he might have enjoyed but did not." Are there any such pleasures in your life?
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

I've got no problem with the real world. I spend a lot of time there, enjoy its chewy riddles, and take it quite seriously. But I also consider myself a militant lobbyist for all the Other Worlds -- the domain of everything that's invisible to the naked eye and irrelevant to the schemes of the rational ego. These alternate realities consist of the unconscious, the dreamtime, the spiritual sphere, the intelligence of nature, and the realm of the ancestors. In my astrological opinion, you're due for a major upgrade in your relationship with these dimensions in the next 12 months. Now would be a good time to get started.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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The information you seek is available in the library of forbidden knowledge, the damp autumnal loam you dreamed you were buried in, and the song you learned before you were born. When you find that information, you will be able to answer this question: What are the three miracles that are most likely to happen to you?
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

While listening to the sound collage radio program "Over the Edge" on KPFA, I learned that a new primary color has been detected. Quite different from red, yellow, or blue, it has its own distinct hue that's impossible to describe. You really have to see it to appreciate its essence. The discoverer of this marvel is Dr. Wohan Squant, who has named the color "squant." (Full details here.) I wish I could predict you're about to create or find something equally revolutionary, Cancerian, but I can't go quite that far. Nevertheless, you've entered a phase when you have the power to tinker with and even transform fundamental laws of your universe. So who knows? Maybe you're on the verge of a shift almost as revolutionary as the discovery of squant.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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One of my favorite memories is gazing into my daughter Zoe's face just moments after her complicated birth. She had been through a heroic ordeal that scared the hell out of me, and yet she looked calm, beatific, and amused.

"She's part-Buddha and part-elf," I thought to myself as I held her in my arms. Gazing back at me, her shiny face blended two states I had never before witnessed together in anyone, let alone in an infant: elegant compassion and playful serenity. This revelation imprinted me like a blood oath and has informed my life and my work ever since.

Do you have a comparable memory? A time when a key to your destiny was suddenly laid bare? A turning point when you got a gift that has fueled your quest for years? Revisit that breakthrough. Then ask life for another one.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

Are you feeling the sting of disappointment, railing at life for reneging on one of its promises to you? Are you in the throes of unleashing a great accusation, suffering the twisty ache that comes from having your pet theories disproved? Maybe you should consider the possibility that you are simply getting an opportunity to correct a misunderstanding -- that life isn't being mean to you and you're not being punished. I'd like to propose that you are, in fact, in the first phase of your healing. Listen to Bengali writer Rabindranath Tagore: "We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us."

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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My old philosophy professor Norman O. Brown would periodically interrupt his lectures, tilt his head upward as if tuning in to the whisper of some heavenly voice, and announce in a puckish tone, "It's time for your irregular reminder: We're already living after the end of the world. No need to fret anymore."

The implication was that the worst had already happened. We had lost much of the cultural riches that had given humans meaning for centuries. All that was going to be taken from us had already been taken.

On the bright side, that meant we were utterly free to reinvent ourselves. Living amidst the emptiness, we had nowhere to go but up. What remained was alienating, but it was also fresh.

Working from the hypothesis that you're living after the end of the world, what are you free to do that you weren't able to do before? Who are you free to be?
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

"The more one dwells on oneself," says psychoanalyst Adam Phillips in his book Going Sane, "the more one is likely to suffer." He thinks people need encouragement to avoid excessive introspection. "My project as a psychoanalyst," he writes, "is to free them to not have to think about their lives so much." While I feel he overstates the case, I do suspect his message would be good for you to heed in the coming weeks. For maximum success and robust mental health, take a generous portion of your attention off yourself and focus it on living your life with compassion, curiosity, and concern for others.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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Many people sincerely think that they will be called before God to account for themselves on Judgment Day. If you yourself have held that belief, you can stop worrying about it. The fact is, according to a survey of over 800 dissident bodhisattvas, urban witch doctors, sacred agents, and undercover geniuses, that you are called before "God" on Judgment Day on a regular basis.

Since you still exist, you have apparently passed every test so far. "God" obviously keeps finding you worthy. You shouldn't get overconfident, of course. But maybe from now on you can assume that although there may be a world of pressure on you, that pressure is natural, merciful, and exactly what you need.

Try this experiment: For seven days, see what it feels like to be secure in your knowledge that you have passed the tests of Judgment Day many, many times.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

"One must choose in life between boredom and suffering," proclaimed author Madame de StaŽl (1766-1817). I beg to differ with her, however. As evidence, I present the course of your life during the next few weeks. After analyzing the astrological omens, I expect you will consistently steer a middle course between boredom and suffering, being able to enjoy some interesting departures from the routine that don't hurt a bit. There may even be pain-free excursions into high adventure mixed in, along with a fascinating riddle that taxes your imagination in rather pleasurable ways.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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Writing on Salon.com, Scott Rosenberg recalled how in his youth he loved to play the fantasy role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. "You'd have to choose not one but two 'alignments' for your character," he mused. "Good and evil, of course, but also 'law' and 'chaos.' And among the people I ran with, 'chaotic/good' was the thing to be, because it let you trust other people and still have fun."

Try out the "chaotic/good" approach for the character you play in your actual life.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

I accompanied a friend and his family to a small fairgound where a local school was having a fundraiser. There were rides and games for younger kids. Right away we came to a challenging activity that involved climbing a ladder made out of rubber and coated with some slippery substance. One girl, about seven years old, was having a moment of rowdy bliss as she tried to ascend. "It's impossible -- but fun!" she cried out to her mom. Your assignment in the coming week is to find an adventure like that: one that's impossible but fun.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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The water you drink is three billion years old, give or take five million years. The stuff your body is made of is at least 10 billion years old, probably older, and has been as far away as 100,000 light-years from where it is right now. The air you breathe has, in the course of its travels, been literally everywhere on the planet, and has slipped in and out of the lungs of almost every human being who has ever lived.

Would you act differently if you had a visceral sense of how eternal and infinite you are? What unprecedented behavior might you express? Visualize a waking dream in which you remember the water you floated in three billion years ago. Imagine you can see the light that shone on you 100,000 light-years ago.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

"It is not always needful for truth to take a definite shape," wrote Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. "It is enough if it hovers about us like a spirit and produces harmony; if it is wafted through the air like the sound of a bell, grave and kindly." With this quote, I'm alerting you to the fact that a new truth is now floating into your world, Sagittarius. It'll be misty and sparkly, yet somehow also decisive and lucid. It will comfort you and yours, but also be a bit shocking. It will be sharply tonic, like good, strong medicine that has a pungent yet oddly delicious flavor you've never tasted before.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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"If everything seems under control," said auto racer Mario Andretti, "you're probably not moving fast enough." I second that emotion. It applies to the entire human race, which is swirling through evolutionary tipping points at an accelerating speed. But it's doubly apropos for you spiritual freedom fighters and renegade bodhisattvas, because you're the vanguard shock troops fighting to merge heaven with earth.

For your edification and amusement, we will add three corollaries to Andretti's wisdom: 1. If you're not pretty much always half-confused, most likely you're not thinking deeply enough. 2. If you're not feeling forever amazed, maybe you're not seeing wildly enough. 3. The truth is fluid, slippery, vagrant, scrambled, promiscuous, kaleidoscopic, and outrageously abundant.

How might you go about using these tricks to marinate yourself in a gentle state of ecstasy pretty much all the time?
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

If there were a useful website with the domain name AmIAGoodPersonOrNot.com, I would advise you to go check it out. The same is true if there were websites like AmIAuthenticOrNot.com, AmIYummyOrNot.com, AmIEnlightenedOrNot.com, or AmIAGorgeousGeniusOrNot.com. What I'm trying to tell you, Capricorn, is that this would be an excellent time for you to find out more about yourself from objective sources -- or any other kind of sources, for that matter. Solicit feedback, my beautiful darling. Ask for updates on how you're doing.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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Question: Which part of you is too tame, overcivilized, and super-domesticated, and what are you going to do about it?

Answer, from a reader named Jason R.: "I was like a mole in a suburban backyard. I had just one little path I trod each day: to the compost pile and back. I chewed on orange rinds and leftover cabbage. I was tamed by the comfort of my familiar environment, content to have a narrow vision. But then I was eaten by a hawk, and became part of a wild, free body. Now I perch on the tops of trees and the peaks of roofs. I survey giddy-wide horizons, from the river to the mesa and far beyond. I have a wealth of choices. Where to fly? What to hunt? Who are my allies? My thoughts breathe deep, like the slow explosion of sun on the morning lake."

Ninety-six percent of all adults say they would change something about their appearance if they could. That statistic is one factor that leads philosopher Jonathan Zap to make this observation: "Suffering associated with body image has reached such epidemic proportions in our culture that it must be counted as one of the greatest spiritual plagues ever to be visited upon mankind." That's the bad news, Aquarius. The good news is that the coming months will be an excellent time for learning to be at more peace with how you look. I invite you to formulate a three-point plan that will help you come to a perspective in which you will love your body exactly the way it is.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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"If you bring forth the genius within you," said Jesus in the gnostic Gospel of Thomas, "it will free you. If you do not bring forth the genius within you, it will destroy you."

Is there any aspect of the genius within you that you're not bringing forth? If so, how can you fix that?
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.

On her website Reuniting.info, Marnia Robinson reported on a discovery she made that may be useful to you. Wandering around a county fair, she went to a reptile exhibit where she encountered an animal trainer who had an alligator resting serenely on his lap. She asked him why the creature was so well-behaved. "I pet it daily," he said. "If I didnít, it would quickly be wild again, and wouldnít allow this." Apply that lesson in your own life, Pisces. Bestow regular tenderness and loving touch to the feral, untamed, primitive influences in your life -- including any that may reside within you.

Want to hear more about the subconscious factors and hidden forces that are influencing your life right now? Listen to your EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPE for the coming week.

I'm also still offering a MID-YEAR PREVIEW -- an audio report on YOUR LONG-TERM DESTINY from now through JANUARY 2012.

Who do you want to become between now and January 2012? Where do you want to go and what do you want to do? I'm ready to help you muse about the interesting possibilities. Tune in.

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I've written astrological oracles for much of my adult life. An early prototype of my work hatched in my previous incarnation as an 11th-century monastic scribe who made illuminated manuscripts. During my off-hours, I dabbled with planetary divination and created a parchment newsletter that got passed around the monastery.

In a later lifetime as a 16th-century Florentine alchemist, I further refined the form. The invention of the printing press meant my oracles could be seen by a larger audience, and as a result I got more feedback, which in turn helped me improve my service. The horoscopes I create today, then, have been in the making for a thousand years.

What about you? Is there anything you've been working on for many centuries? If your memory of your previous incarnations is fuzzy, make up a good story.
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The preceding oracle comes from my book, PRONOIA Is the Antidote for Paranoia:How the Whole World Is Conspiring to Shower You with Blessings.